The TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, researches relationships between text, narrative and image. We publish books, journal articles, host a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture (previously Working Papers on Design) and host events including international conferences.

Monday, 5 November 2012

On Tuesday 13th November, TVAD welcomes our Visiting Researcherfor 2012-13, Dr Kjetil Fallan. Dr Fallan is Associate Professor of Design History in the
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University
of Oslo. He is the author of Design History: Understanding Theory
and Method (Berg Publishers, 2010), editor of Scandinavian Design:
Alternative Histories (Berg Publishers, 2012), co-editor (with Grace
Lees-Maffei) of Made in Italy: Reassessing a Century of Italian Design
(Berg Publishers, 2013), and has articles in journals such as the Journal of
Design History, Design Issues, Enterprise and Society and History
and Technology. Dr. Fallan is an editor of the Journal of Design History. http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/kjetifal/index.html

TUESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER
2012

10 am, 2B05, FMM building: Staff Colloquium on current research

Open
to all staff and research students, participants are invited to make short
(c.15-20 minute) illustrated presentations about their own research and how it
connects with the TVAD nominated theme of ‘Relationships between Text,
Narrative and Image’, in order to foster links between researchers and
potential collaboration.

Our relationships to designed objects are as personal and
subjective as are our relationships to fellow humans. How, then, can design
historians relate histories of consumption and use, provided that history
writing is to be relevant beyond the individual and the singular? Recognizing
that the meaning of design is produced as much, if not more, in the context of
consumption, ownership and use as in the context of design and production,
design historians are faced with considerable challenges, ideological,
methodological and theoretical. How to identify the counterpoint of objectivity
and subjectivity? Where to draw the line between the personal and the private?
What is the difference between memoirs and memories? In short: How does my
story relate to his/her/their stories, turning it into History? In this
lecture, these questions are explored through the notion of designed objects as
‘material memories’, in the form of a case study: the DBS Kombi bicycle on
which the author learned to ride and now collects.

2.30 pm, AA191, Art & Design Building: Research Training Seminar led by KF for all PG, MA and research
degree students and supervisors and others: ‘Up Close and Personal: Subjectivity in Design and Research’

The search for objective qualities long reigned supreme as
an ideal for both design practice and academic research. And although
postmodernism significantly critiqued and challenged that ideal, leading to a
widespread acknowledgement that objectivity remains an elusive utopia—at least
in the creative and liberal arts—fully embracing subjectivity is still often
seen as suspect and problematic. This research training seminar provides a
brief introduction to and examples of the topic, and invites discussion on the
role of subjectivity in design and research.

Each
participating student to speak about their own research interests for c.10
minutes (briefing sheet supplied separately, copies on request from GLM)

2.30
pm, D118, off D corridor in main
building: Staff Reading Group

Staff
and research students to discuss tabled research writing in progress circulated
via email by GLM in advance of the meeting. Please email texts to be tabled for
the reading group to GLM in good time, and no later than two days in advance.

THURSDAY 15TH NOVEMBER
2012

10.30
am, AA191, Art & Design Building: Continuation
Meeting

Time
reserved for exploring issues TBC, thrown up by the proceedings on Monday and
Tuesday and planning future visit(s) and collaboration.